How to Save Money on International Calls

If you’re living abroad or even just traveling extensively, I bet you know how expensive and hassling calling home can be. There are lots of cards, local providers, and internet services that claim they can help you make long distance calls that don’t cost a fortune, but choosing the best solution is always difficult. That’s why we created a short guide to give you some insights into the upsides and the downsides of any calling service.

So, here’s how to save money on international calls:

 

1. Look for the best calling rates for prepaid credit

Going for prepaid credit (also called pay as you go) shows either that you call multiple countries or that you like the freedom of topping up whenever you need to make calls, at your own convenience.

If you choose prepaid credit as the product that suits you, it’s important that you benefit from affordable rates. Long distance calls with your local provider cost an arm and a leg, but a specialized international service will always give you better rates.

 

Watch out for hidden charges: unincluded VAT, connection fees, processing fees, 3 minute rounding, and you wouldn’t believe it, but there are companies that even have hang up fees.

 

The solution: KeepCalling’s pay as you go product is called Voice Credit. By using it you get really low rates to call any destination of your choice and there are absolutely no extra fees. You pay for the credit you buy and that’s it!

 

2. Get a subscription deal

If only call country, a subscription may be what you need. The rate per minute for plans is always lower than the pay as you go one and the number of minutes offered is usually tailored to suit different needs. Plans start at as little as 50 or 100 minutes and can go up to unlimited ones.

 

Watch out for deals that expire quickly. Subscriptions are usually expected to last for a month, but there are also many that only last for two weeks or even 7 days! This short time span forces you to use up all your minutes before they expire, then buy more, and so on.

 

The solution: KeepCalling offers a total of 27 monthly subscriptions for 15 different countries (Australia, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, China, Germany, India, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Poland, Romania, South Korea, Thailand, and United States). The subscriptions are called Monthly Plans and are renewed every 30 days. With KeepCalling, you can call your favorite destination for less!

 

3. Have your loved ones call you

You’re not the only one who wants to get in touch with the family, the family also want to reach you! They may have news to share or they simply miss you, so they need to call you and you know all about the cost of international calls, right? Well, to make things easy for you and practically free for them, there is a service called Virtual Number (you could find it under different names with different companies, though).

The idea behind it is that you buy a local number in the country where your family lives. They call you on that number and you answer your own phone, because you can forward it to your personal number. Your family only pays the cost of a local call (or nothing at all, if they have a local plan) and you pay either a monthly fee or the typical rate to call the country you live in, depending on the provider you choose.

 

Watch out for services that make you pay both a monthly fee and a rate/min for each call. Yes, there are quite a lot of such providers. They lure you with an attractive monthly fee, but in fact, besides that, you also have to pay a certain rate per minute whenever you receive a call.

 

The solution: With KeepCalling you get a Virtual Number in 38 countries for only $9.99/month. That’s the only fee you pay to receive unlimited calls from anyone in your home country each month. Depending on the country you choose, your calls can be forwarded to your landline, mobile, or both.

 

Also…

Besides good rates, when choosing a calling service you also need to focus on a few more elements: call quality, calling options, payment methods, customer feedback, and those little extra features that make all the difference.

KeepCalling has a 100% quality guarantee policy and you can place calls from any device you can think of: landlines, mobiles, payphones, smartphones, computers, and even tablets. To make a purchase, you need any major credit/debit card or a PayPal account. KeepCalling offers many free features that make your life easier and your calling experience smoother: Speed Dial, PINless, Voice Prompts, Auto Recharge, or Star Rating.

KeepCalling is one of the best ranked telecom companies on review sites. To see what customers say about KeepCalling, check for instance Trustpilot.